All Vanished Forms signs a father and son first collaboration. It introduces six pieces for pipe organ and electronic instruments written and composed by Thibault & Thierry Mechler.
Recorded at the Kölner Philharmonie, Basilique Notre-Dame de Thierenbach, and Église Saint-Germain de Vitteaux in Burgundy, the album is an architectural synthesis between industrial landscapes and a minimalist, cathedral-like mineral aesthetic. Saturated sounds burst like ember and melt into the pneumatic and mechanical tones of the pipe organ, digitally processed and blended with electronic instruments.
Deeply attached to the culture of organ improvisation, father and son composed exclusively using precise protocols. The created instructions have been used to delimit the registration, timbre, tempo and rhythmic framework of each piece taking into account the acoustic and affective features of the different recording locations. As a result, the mixture of two musical atmospheres reflects the inherent tension between the natural and the artificial while suggesting a sense of urgency, of collapse, of catharsis.
All Vanished Forms is the result of a dialogue between two different backgrounds. Thierry Mechler built an established career as an organ soloist with numerous concerts around Europe, the USA, Latin America, Iceland, Georgia, South Korea and China. He has released over twenty albums of classical repertoire and contemporary improvisation. Thibault Mechler, Ph.D. candidate in law, is a composer researching listening as a posture and a tool for composition throughout electronic music. He has been active in the contemporary art scene since 2021 by exhibiting commissioned works and music performances in art institutions such as Kunstverein Freiburg, Centre international d’Art Verrier de Meisenthal and Tempel Amsterdam. An early version of All Vanished Forms has been introduced to the audience of Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Köln during Orgelmixturen Festival in 2023.
